Being weak, being strong
by Istalrison
Summary: Just another "What if Astrid would run to Stoik and tell him about Toothless, then Hiccup would be exiled" story. More or less important OC, but mostly Astrid, Hiccup, Toothless and general Berk centered. Contains Hiccstrid. Five years after Hiccup was exiled, he is dragged back to Berk, to help them with their massive dragon raid problems. Is he strong enough to forgive them?
1. Prologue

**So, I know that this kind of story is kind of worn off and so on, but I have to get rid of this story idea, before my head just bursts, because it would build up more and more. First to say, this will probably be my only author note in the whole story, except for one in the end of the prologue, to which I will say something in the end of the prologue. (WOW, totally unexpected, that one, höhö.) **

**So, I have to say, I do not own HTTYD, only one OC, which will occur more often in the story, is mine. I apologize myself for the huge grammatical, technical and other mistakes, I will make for sure, I am not a native English speaker. Since I will not make more author notes, I will thank you for your reviews, which will or will not occur (I tend to believe last option) and say, that I will read them nevertheless (if someone will be so crazy, to review this). Since I am writing this mostly for myself, to get rid of my thoughts, I beg every hater to leave all their anger in reviews under my story and leave the writers alone, who mostly write it for some decent readers, they deserve better than that and I do not care about negative reviews. Last, but not least I want to thank you for your attention (if someone is still reading this stupid, way to long author note) and hope you do not get to annoyed with the story. :D**

_No one is weak. Except the ones,_

_who claim to be __always__ strong._

_Prologue_

_Nemhil's POV_

_I was visiting it again, this small village, which suffered under massive dragon raids. I think, its name was Berk. I did not know, what dragged me to come here again. My 'companions' couldn't come in with me, the most Vikings didn't look at me and I couldn't do anything, to help them against the dragons. I promised I wouldn't interfere; they had to find their own way out of the war. I strolled through the village, looking for something, any clue, what dragged me to this village again, after only three months till my last visage. That's when I noticed a scene, I had witnessed in so many villages before, but she still annoyed me: Three kids, probably around nine years old, had cornered another boy about the same age. The one boy who had the lead looked like a typical Viking kid, big, with swelling muscles and a dirty grin in his face, he seemed to enjoy the situation. The two other kids seemed to be twins, one boy and one girl, both blond and both as large as the first one, although not as much Viking-like as the first one. They were less__ excited__ then the first one, but still took a liking in the situation. The boy in the corner was small, you could nearly say puny, but still had one of these typical Viking-like expressions in his green eyes: stubbornness. No matter, what they would do with him, he would stand up again, brush the dirt from his clothes and continued with his day, as if nothing happened. This was, when I noticed two other kids, which stand a bit behind the three, who were obviously teasing and bullying the smaller boy. A boy, bigger than the leader, with blond hair and a worried expression on his face and a girl, with blue eyes, blond hair and a more or less bored expression on her face._

_I sighed. Normally, I would not interfere, but right now, I had nothing to do and I always hated it, when someone picked on someone else, just because he was physically stronger. In a battle of minds, the larger boy wouldn't have stood a chance against this smaller one, he would go down the second, the battle started, but this was not our world. I sighed again and began walking towards the six kids, overhearing the puns, the three were throwing at their victim, the forced laughs from the big one and the sarcastic, but nevertheless mumbled answers from the little boy. When I arrived, the leader just said: "Now Useless, how does it feel to be a greater thread to the village then the dragons themselves? I bet, your mom didn't die, she just left, because she couldn't stand your puny figure and your accidents any more, right Hiccup?" The twins laughed at this comment, the big boy also forced a laugh out and the boy, who had said this, looked with a grin to the girl behind him. Great. If there was one thing, that I hated more than a bully, who teased others just for fun, it was a bully, who violated others, to impress a girl. They were more adamantine, often more violent and focused on one special target, they would bully mostly, till the victim committed suicide or was cut off completely from the real world. I could see the fists of the boy, whose name was Hiccup, clench, as the other one mentioned his mother. I had to step in, this could get violent pretty fast, although I was unsure, if Hiccup would be the initiator. "Stop it", I said, as I was directly behind the leader of the group. He whirled around, his eyes getting bigger, he didn't hear me approaching. Then his eyes narrowed. "And why should I?" he grunted, as he examined me. "Is it reason enough, that I will cut off one off your fingers, for every line you now throw at him?" I said and pointing at Hiccup. His eyes widened again, he took a step back. "My father would kill you, if you did that", he groaned. I just shrugged and continued to stare at him, until he turned around and waved the others to follow him. At the end of the street, he turned and shouted: "You were lucky, Useless, but there will not be every time someone there to protect you." With these words, he went around the corner. I sighed. Again. This boy seemed to be the real problem. The twins seemed to just make chaos and get on everyone nerves, the big boy seemed pretty helpless, I guess, he didn't want to be excluded as well and the girl seemed as if she was not caring, which was probably the worst reaction, the boy could get from any of them. When he looked at her, I could see something flare up in his eyes shortly, just to be oppressed the next second. But in the leaders eyes I just saw hate, when he turned around to face Hiccup again. _

_I shrugged, maybe I was wrong and then looked at Hiccup, who seemed to be pretty nervous. I got down on one knee, to face him and asked softly: "Are you alright?" He nodded. "Are they doing this often?" Again he nodded. I suppressed a smile, although he would not be able to see it. "Can you talk?" "Y-y-es", came the stuttering answer. "Could you tell me the names of the kid who just bullied you?" "The one who j-just said the last thing was Snotlout, my c-cousin", he mumbled. I was surprised. I never saw cousins treat each other like this. "The t-twins are Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Ruffnut is the girl and Tuffnut the boy. The big boy standing behind them was Fishleg." He made a pause. "And the last girl?" I asked. "That is A-astrid", he whispered, so I could barley understand him. I smiled, the boy had something for Astrid, that was for sure. "Now, should we go and tell your father about the incident?" I asked. The boy looked up and shook his head. "No, he wouldn't listen and even when he would, he would just say, that is something a Viking could deal with alone an then", the boy's voice became more and more silent, "he would just look with disappointment in his eyes at me, because I am such a non-Viking." I nodded. I assumed that the boy's father was the chief of the village, Stoik the Vast. There was something in his eyes and in his way to walk, which reminded me of a small Stoik, which I had seen, when… I shook my head, now was not the time for memories. I looked at the boy and sighed. Then I stood up. "When you need me again, just call for me, but I am pretty sure, that you can make something out of your life. Always remember: There is more than one way, to be strong." With these words I rushed back into the shadows, leaving behind a probably confused boy._

_I visited the village from time to time again, looking after Hiccup, always from the shadows, never revealing myself, even, when Snotlout and the twins bullied him. I would not interfere, except the boy wanted me too, and so I didn't._

_Till the day, Hiccup stood in the Kill Ring with a dragon, waiting to be executed._

**So, my other authors note (and also my last one) is dedicated to a few people, I want to thank, because of their ideas, their stories brought to me.**

**I want to thank fourtrisXhiccstrid with her story True Nature, who brought up the idea of writing a fanfic like this (screw you, without you, no one would have to endure this crap :D), NFS LOVER with his/her story The Past Defines The Future, for giving me an all-round idea how the atmosphere of such a fanfic should be (I will "borrow" me one or two of your ideas, especially what Ripper said about Hiccup to the other teens, there is nothing, you left out, so I have to say the same XD [please, do not release an angry Astrid at me *wince*]) and livvi695 with her/his (yes, I am equalizing women, sometimes first the feminine article, than the male *proud shoulder clap*) story Dragon's Creed, where I got some ideas for the fine-tuning of my OC (if, by some chance, you read this, please continue the story, it was really good *beg* ;) ).**

**So, that was all of them, who got my appreciate. These are not the only stories I read, but the ones who got me the most ideas. Anyway, I am ending this authors note now, end you will never hear from me again, well except for chapters for the story, of course (or if something really BIG happens). Bye.**


	2. Interfere

**Wow, some people actually read this, I cannot believe it. :D And for the record: Yes, I know, I said, I do not make any more author notes, but my beta reader mentioned something, that I cannot ignore.**

**What I said about the reviews could be misinterpreted, he thinks, so I just explain it in a different way. I am happy about every review and really overjoyed about some constructive criticism and/or positive feedback. What I meant was, that I will not do this thing called 'Review Response' – was it that name – well I will not do it, but I will read the reviews nevertheless. And about the thing with the bad reviews: I do not care about them. I write this story for me, to get rid of my thoughts and so maybe some can enjoy this story, so I do not care about hater reviews. So you can just fill the review section of my story with hater comments, if you want (or do not want, haters never do, as it is said to them), I will be glad, that they get their anger off on my story, whether then on other stories, which really do not deserve that.**

**Since I am already writing this, I can thank a guest for his first review (I got it per e-mail, who the Hel knows, why I do not see it under the story) and can say, yes, the narrator of the prologue is a bit mysterious, but he will be introduced later in the story. :D**

Chapter 1: Interfere

_Hiccup's POV_

I stood in the kill ring, head down, my hand tied at my back. Next to me stand my father, Stoik. I did not raise my head, but I knew, he looked at me disappointment in his eyes. That was not something new, but what was new was, that I didn't knew, he was right - well at least more or less right, always had to see it from different pint of views. Before me laid my best and only friend, chained to the ground. I couldn't look in Toothless eyes, I feared to see hurt in them or worse, betrayal. When my father began to speak, I looked up, looked around and saw nothing but hate in the faces of the Vikings around the ring. I was never really popular among them, but they still accepted me, in one way or another. Now I was outcasted, a totally foreign in a mass of Vikings. _Not that much difference to before, but now they want me dead, not just out of their way._ I saw only two faces, which stared not with anger or hated at me: Gobber who had a sad expression on his face and Astrid, who quickly turned her head away, as I looked to her. I sighed, looked at the ground again and listened to my father's speech. "... and therefore the traitor of our traditions", I heard him pause for a second and also heard him gulping, "known as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, is charged with death penalty, if he is not willing and able to kill the dragon, known as Night Fury, in front of our eyes right now." I looked up, as he gave me a dagger, pledge in his eyes. "If you kill him, you get a minor sentence and get integrated in the community again, once your penalty is off."

I looked at the dagger in my hand and suddenly felt anger rise in me. "Since my mother died no one, except Gobber, had accepted me for what I was. I was always Hiccup the Useless, Hiccup the runt, Hiccup the disappointment, Hiccup, who couldn't do anything right and only made it worse. Then I finally found someone who accepted me for what I was and even befriended me and now I shall kill him?" I hesitated as I noticed, that I said all off that out loud. But I couldn't back away now. Let them all hear, what I got to say. "Since my mother died, this dragon, this 'beast', as you call it, was more family then any of you. He is my only friend, my only community, my only **home **on this island and now you ask me to kill it, like it was just some stupid animal?" I spat out and threw the dagger away. I felt more anger rise, the one I suppressed for so long, the anger about Snotlout's and the twins teasing, the anger about my father's disappointment, the anger about everyone else – and especially, the anger about Astrid ignoring me and selling me and my friend out to Stoik. I thought, I had time, maybe I also thought, she would come back, because she was curious, but instead came the whole village and captured Toothless and me.

I looked at my father. "I will not kill him. Rather I die with him, than becoming one of you." "Very well", said Stoik. "Who wants to be the one, to bring down that beast?" he yelled at the crowd. I could hear yells and sheers, as everyone was eager to kill him; I even saw my former 'friends' running to the Ring, well except for Astrid.

Suddenly a new voice, quiet, but still hear able, drowned over the noise. "You all are not capable to do that."

_No one's POV_

Everyone glanced at the person, who now jumped into the Kill Ring, who just made this announcement. He was large, had not the typical Viking stature and everything he wore, was black, from the boots to his hood. Only Stoik, Hiccup and Toothless could see, that his face was not visible under his hood, even his eyes were not to be spotted. He had four swords with him, two at his back and one at each of his side.

As he approached towards Hiccup, Toothless and Stoik, Stoik narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by this?" he asked, quite angry. The smile in the voice of the man could not be overheard. "I do not say that you Vikings would not have enough bravery to try and kill this Night Fury, but what I can say, is, that you will not succeed in killing it." "Do you think, we are all weak like the traitor over there", yelled Snotlout out of the mass, "We know, how to kill a dragon." "As I said", the man explained quietly, "you could try, but would not succeed. You see, Night Furies have a special way of defending themselves, once they are downed. They can make their scales harder than steel, so any of your weapons would break, if you would try and execute him. It took me years to make a sword, which is capable of killing a Night Fury." With these words, he drew one of his swords from his back; it was completely white, like a star in the night sky. It was clear, that it was not made out of steel. He looked at it and seemed to lose himself in memory. Stoik cleared his throat. "So would you lend us this swo..." he began, but was interrupted by Snotlouts laughter. "Hah, this sword is not even made out of iron, let alone steel. How strong can it be?" he jeered. The man looked at him. "You really want to know that?" A taunting tone has slid into his voice. He swung his sword.

Hiccup closed his eyes, he didn't want to see, when Toothless died. He suddenly felt a presence next to him and a word was whispered in his ear: "Run!" He opened his eyes to see the stranger stand next to him and his and Toothless's bonds were cut. The dragon didn't wasted time, grabbed Hiccup and ran out of the Arena, just waiting long enough for Hiccup, to get on his back. "You could have had peace!" Hiccup yelled out. "You could have ended this war, father!" "You have no right to say this" Stoik shouted back. "You are not my son!" Everyone saw a tear escape Hiccup's eyes, but only the stranger, Gobber and Astrid sew the same tear at the cheek of Stoik. Toothless turned around and flew away.

_Nemhil's POV_

I looked at the point, from where Hiccup and Toothless just escaped and smiled. I had promised, not to interfere, but I was tired of waiting and would not let these stubborn Vikings waste the first chance of peace they had since the war started three hundred years ago. I attached all my swords on Toothless saddle, so now I was unarmed, but I didn't care. First priority was, to distract them from Hiccup for the time being, I could always get away, when I wanted. I sensed someone approaching, it was that girl named Astrid, who Hiccup had a crush on. I turned around to her. She looked at me, tried to see any of my face for some expressions. I knew, she would fail.

"Why?" she asked simply. I smiled under my hood. "Because he is the only one, who is strong enough, to seek peace, although it seems, there is only war." With these words, I turned around to Stoik and said, lightly amused: "Aren't you going to arrest me?" Stoik shook his head, coming to his senses and then yelled at two Vikings, guarding the door: "What are you waiting for, arrest this traitor!" The two guards ran to me and bound my hands together. I smiled; this was going to be interesting. Stoik approached at me. "You will pay for this", he said through his teeth. "Bring him to the cells", he ordered. I smiled. Yep, definitely interesting.


	3. Truth will always find you

Chapter 2: Truth will always find you

_No one's POV_

The stranger was sitting in his cell, calm, not meditating. He knew that Hel broke loose after the betrayal of Hiccup and he knew that Stoik was broken. He had seen his eyes after he disowned Hiccup. The very moment, the words passed the lips of the giant Viking, he regretted them. But they were said and since Hiccup was gone, he couldn't take them back.

The stranger knew, he should be executed. He knew, the Vikings would make sure, he could not escape. But he also knew that he didn't care. Over the years, so many tried to kill him, for example that one time, when… He angrily shook his head and broke out of meditation. He still had his problems with thinking nothing while meditating.

As he just tried to slip back, he heard footsteps approaching. Five teens. Probably the gang, who bullied Hiccup. The man sighed. He was really not in the mood for a conversation, especially since he knew how Snotlout would open it. He was not disappointed.

"Looks, like we just found the biggest rat in the cells", he heard him say, as they stopped in front of the cells. The man looked up and saw Snotlout, the twins, Fishleg and Astrid standing in front of his cell, Snotlout and the twins with a smirk on their face, Fishleg with an expression, you could not allocate and Astrid with an emotionless face. The man did not answer. "Maybe I should thank you" continued Snotlout, "since you helped this weakling to escape, I am now the new heir of Berk and we will see a good show tomorrow." He grinned.

The stranger laughed. There was nothing bitter or sarcastic in his laugh, he seemed really amused. "Oh, you will see a good show tomorrow, do not worry about that. But", he leaned forward and his voice became intense, "when I would be in your place, I would never call Hiccup a weakling. He has more strength than all of you together."

Snotlout starred for a second at the man, then burst into laughs. "Of course Hiccup is a weakling, didn't you see him crying or that he fled in fear? When that not the signs for a weakling are, I will give up on marrying Astrid." Congratulations Astrid", said the man with a smile in his voice," you just got rid of an unwanted marriage proposal." "Hiccup was so weak and scrawny", continued the male twin, so he had to be Tuffnut, "he couldn't even kill a dragon, when it was tied down before him." "And", the female twin spoke now, probably Ruffnut, "he was useless, he couldn't even lift a battleaxe or throw a bola, he messed everything up he touched." "You want to add something to the list, Astrid, Fishleg" said the hooded man in a polite tone. Fishleg looked away, seemed to feel uneasy; Astrid just continued to look at the man with a blank face.

The stranger just shook his head. "Showing tears may be for the weak", he said, "Showing fear may be for the weak." "Ah, so you admit, that Hiccup is a weakling", said Snotlout with a grin. The man held up a hand. "But…" he said. "But what?" Snotlout taunted. "But", the man said again, "showing weakness in front of others is determined only for the strongest. I would give you, Snotlout", his hand pointed at Snotlout, "a week, you two", he now pointed at the twins, "a month and you two", his focus was now on Astrid and Fishleg, "a years." Snotlout snorted, but Astrid asked: "For what exactly?"

The man stood up and came to the bars. "You could only live this long, without breaking or killing yourself", he lowered his voice, "if you had to endure the same thing, Hiccup had to endure every day for ten years." Snotlout snorted again. "He was a scrawny fishbone, who could do nothing right, what could he endure?" he said.

The man sighed. "I could now get out of this cell and torture you in the cruelest way you could think of for the whole day. Triple the pain of this and you still have not even rudimentary the pain, you forced on Hiccup for this years. You have not seen him in the woods, crying his eyes out, wishing he was dead, wishing he was **anything** or **anywhere** he were now, because you made his life a Hel of one. Teasing him, whenever you could see him, making fun of his dead mother, giving him the fault for things, just because it was fun, beat him up, when something didn't go your way or even that just out of fun, making him socially awkward and an outcast under his own people, when everything, he wanted, was to fit in, to be one of you." The man ended his monologue and shook his head again. "Come back and talk to me, if you have endured a tenth of this pain, Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut. Fishleg was the only one, who tried to befriend him, but you even made this option unthinkable for him."

He went back to the wall, opposite off the bars and sat down again. "I have nothing more to say." He could hear, how four pairs off feet went off, leaving Astrid behind, who seemed to be shocked, by the words, the man just said. "Did we really…?" she asked, gulping. The stranger sighed again and nodded. "You know, you were not even the worse", he said in a calm tone. "At least not from Hiccup's point of view. He was glad that you ignored him instead of teasing him with the others. He was glad, that you sometimes smiled, while he could see this, so your smile could brighten his whole day. He liked to see you with the axe of yours."

Astrid stared puzzled on the axe of hers. "Why would he be glad to see me with this axe?" she whispered, "It was a birthday present from my dad." "Did you ever wonder why the axe grip felt so good in your hands? Why the axe was so light? So perfect balance for throwing? And", the stranger got up again, walked to the bars and pointed on something, that was carved in the blade of the axe, "didn't you notice this and asked yourself, why this was carved in there?" On the blade of the axe was written _Valkyrie's Blade_. The man went back to his spot. "He made this axe for you, because he was in love with you", he said, while he sat down. Astrid shook her head. "No", she whispered, "No, that cannot be…" The man continued: "I think you know the saying 'Your home is where your heart is.' When his mother died, Berk began to fade away as a home, as well as his father. These guys", he gestured towards the direction, the other teens went off, "made sure he would not have a home in Berk again. And you" he pointed at Astrid, who suddenly felt like she would break down right here and now, "you just crushed large parts of what was remaining from his home, when you told Stoik about Toothless."

Astrid backed off slowly; still shaking her head, then turned around and ran. She didn't know, where she was running, but she had to get away from the village. When she finally stopped, she found herself in the Cove, where she saw Toothless for the first time. She looked again at the axe and her hand became lose. The axe dropped on the ground, followed by droplets of water.

Astrid was crying.


	4. Of executions and liberation

**Yeah, I know, I said, I don't make any author notes after the one from the second chapter ( I already said that after the first chapter, damn), but it somehow feels not right, to just not thank everyone for his/her review and the tips, they offered. **

**So, to The Werewolf Assassin: I will try out, what you said, although I do not really like it, it just feels like the chapter then consist more off paragraphs, then of anything other. And I am sorry, but I like POV changes. You can look at situations from so much different perspectives, so I will make a POV change, whenever I feel, it's appropriate.**

**To NTYTekHTTYDFan (duuude, what name :D): Yeah, I "borrowed" myself one or two things from The Past Defines The Future, written by NFSLover, which you should read by the way, if you didn't yet (yahoo, plug FTW :D), but he wrote this chapter so perfectly, you cannot write a chapter with the same content without copy one or two thing. I tried to give it my own characteristics and some new innovations (if you can call that innovations), but ended up nearly copying the second chapter. I'm sorry****L****!**

**To Angryhenry: If water with salt is no water, then what are the oceans filled with? :D (Don't mind me; I can be a sarcastic, little asshole, sometimes.) **

**I do not know, if this is my last author note and I will not say anything towards that theme, since I failed so horribly with the last information given, but I can say, I will not give an author note with every chapter.**

**Thanks to everyone, who read this and actually liked it.**

Chapter 3: Of executions and liberation

_No one's POV_

The stranger was led into the Ring, guarded by two Vikings, his hand bounded to his back. He could see the hate and the anger in the face of the Vikings and heard them yelling at him. He did not care. He looked up to the sun, suspiciously, as if he was asking himself, when something special would occur.

In the middle of the Kill Ring stood Stoik the Vast, with a face full of expression but simultaneously showing no feelings.

"This stranger, who refused to tell us his name, is guilty for the action of helping the traitor", his voice cracked shortly, but no one seemed to notice it," formerly known as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, escaping his treason. Therefore he will now be sentenced as if he was the named traitor." He turned around to the man. "Any last words?" he asked.

"Remember these words, Stoik and every one of you as well", said the stranger in his calm voice. "You now may call Hiccup a traitor, an outcast, a ", he looked to the teens, saw the tear stains on Astrid's face and smiled under his hood, "weakling. But you all are responsible for what Hiccup became. You either made a broken man or", his voice became silent, almost threatening, "you made yourself the most dangerous enemy, you ever have to face. And believe me; you will have to face him." With these words, he turned around to Stoik. "And you, Stoik the Vast, will have to justify yourself in front of him." He fell silent.

"The penalty", said Stoik the Vast, over the noise of mumbling and few shouting's, which grew louder, after the man ended his speech, "is death by dragon." After he said that, the whole crowd began to cheer, awaiting a spectacle.

The man began to laugh. He did not mind the irritated looks or the angry shouts, he got, he just laughed. "You sentence me to death by dragon", he chuckled, "although you saw, what Hiccup was capable of doing?" He stood up, while he laughed, he had sat down. "Speaking of Hiccup", he smiled and looked at the sky, "I think, it's time, I take my ride."

With these words, the earth around him exploded.

_Hiccup's POV_

I did not know why the man had saved me, nor why he seemed so familiar. But I knew, I couldn't just let him die, because he wanted to save me. After flying for about three hours, I got to that conclusion and Toothless agreed with me. We made our way to an island, which was only one flight hour away from Berk and settled there for the night.

The next morning, we took off and I used the time, we were in the air, to make a plan, how we could free the man. Although my plan seemed to ten to go wrong, I felt myself better with something planned out in my head, whether it worked or not.

But my plan was not necessary. We got to the Kill Ring just in time, to see the earth explode, where the stranger stood. When the dust settled, my father was alone in the ring, with a gigantic hole, where the stranger had stood seconds ago. It was deadly silent; the Vikings around the Ring seemed unable to comprehend, what just happened.

The earth exploded again, this time outside of the Ring. In the dust cloud, you could only see a shadow, but this was enough, to let most Vikings grab their weapons tighter. It was a snake-like shadow, with a big head and a horn on its forehead. When the dust settled this time, I stared for about five seconds, before I was able to understand, what I saw.

It was a dragon, snake-like and with spikes all over his body. In its wide open mouth, I could see six rows off long, sharp teeth. I remembered this body shape from the book of dragons. There was a drawing of a whispering Death, which looked exactly like this dragon, although there were to major differences. The first was the coulor. Whispering Deaths had dark colours like black or dark grey, this one was completely white, with red eyes. The second difference was the size, this thing was freaking huge. Normal whispering Deaths were about 25 to 30 meters long; this dragon was about three times that size.

The next shock was that the dragon had no horn on his forehead. What I mistook for a horn, was the stranger, standing on the head of the dragon. I could hear him from where I was with Toothless, just standing in the air, stunned by the unexpected sight.

"I'm afraid, I cannot longer make use of your hospitality, although I quite enjoyed it, to stay here", said the man, amusement in his voice. "I will set of nor and bid you farewell and I think, I can speak for Hiccup, if I say: Where you do not want us, we will not stay.

Since you are so annoyed with dragons and dragon raids I will take it upon me, to take these", he gestured to the hole, the big whispering Death left and exactly in this moment, five dragons climbed out of it, four of them positioning themselves left and right of the white dragon, the terrible Terror flying up to him and seated itself on his shoulder, "'unwanted guests' with me, so you no longer need to bear their presence."

With these words, the white dragon took off, followed by the four others. The Vikings still stand there in silence, shocked and not able to comprehend, what just happened. The stranger made a hand sign towards me to follow him and I shrugged. Since he rode on a dragon and saved me and Toothless the day before, it could be pretty useful to hear, what he had to say.

Five hours later, we landed on a small island, just consisting of a mountain, a small strap of forest and a beach. When I landed with Toothless, the stranger stood in front of the big whispering Death, who had his head bowed towards him and mumbled something. I looked questioned to Toothless, who gave me his _How-am-I-suppose-to-know?_-look. I shrugged. Maybe I could ask the man himself. When I turned around, I saw him petting the white dragons head. Seconds later, the dragon turned around and flew off, followed by the other dragons. He looked after them and then turned around to me. Although I could not see his face, I could swear, he had a smile playing his mouth right now. I studied him closer, but could not discover anything, I did not saw the day before in the Kill Ring. Black boots, black trousers, black doublet with a lot of pockets on it, black leather gloves, a black cape with a hood, which coated his entire face in darkness. The only difference was that he did not have his four swords with him, but I suddenly remembered for swords, being attached to Toothless saddle. I wondered how they got there and now recognized them as the ones, the stranger wore before he cut my bonds and the bonds of Toothless. I turned around and dissolved the swords from the Toothless saddle. Toothless had curled himself up, one eye resting on me. I smiled and petted him.

"I'll be alright", I whispered. He just gave a grunt as a response. I turned back to the stranger, who hadn't moved.

"I think, these swords are yours", I said. He nodded, took them from my hands and attached them like before; one on each side of his body and two crossed behind his back.

"I can understand, that you have many questions", he said, his voice this time serious, without any traces of sarcasm or amusement. "I will try to answer as many as possible, as long as it does not concern my identity. Also, I have not enough time, to answer all of your questions, so I would suggest, you should start with the most important."

I nearly started with "Who are you?", but then remembered, he would not answer this question. So I just blurted out the first question that came in my mind:"What is the matter with this white dragon? It looks like a whispering Death, but is much bigger and the color does not fit."

"It is called a screaming Death and it's just a mutation of the original whispering Death", he explained, the amusement returned, likely about what I considered 'important question'. "And I know your next question already; Thorn takes the other dragons to a place, where they can live in peace, if they want to live there."

"Wait, Thorn?" I asked perplex. "So, you named him?"

"Of course, why should I not", he asked and I was pretty sure, I heard a grin in his voice.

I needed a moment, to order my thoughts, this was all very confusing. I thought, I was the only one, who saw dragons not as mindless, bloodthirsty, emotionless beasts, who only lived for killing humans. A question travelled through my mind about which I thought, since mine and Toothless escape from the Kill Ring.

"Why did you save us?" I asked.

"Because you are capable of ending this war. I am tired of waiting and couldn't just let these stubborn Vikings toss the only chance of peace away, they had since the war started three hundred years ago", the man answered.

"How could I end a war, I'm not even a good Viking, I am so un-Viking, the moment, I enter a village, it's the n-Vikiiengst village of the whole archipelago", I muttered.

"And that's exactly, why you can end this war", the man said calmly.

I looked up, unbelieving he just said this.

He laughed. "Being different means not being better or worse than others. Different is a neutral word, it just means you can do things, others can't. And because you are different the way you are, Hiccup, you can end this war. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day, you definitely will."

A high pitched dragon scream rolled over the island. The stranger looked up in the air and sighed. "Looks, like my time is up", he said. Then he looked at me, tilting his head a little.

"Do you know where you want to stay?" he asked. I just shook my head.

"Fly from here towards east", he instructed me, "the third island has a village on it. Say, the Darkness has sent you. They will at least let you stay for the night. If you can help them with a certain problem, you may be welcomed to their tribe."

He stepped back three steps and held an arm up in the air, like he was waiting for something. "Remember always, if you need help, feel free to call", he said and again I could have sworn, that he smiled. "But also remember that own experiences are sometimes more worth, than gold or silver."

"Wait", I demanded, "Can I ask you one last question?" He nodded.

"Is it true, what you said about the defense system of the Night Furies?" I asked, while looking back to Toothless, who still lay on the same spot, curled up in himself.

"Good, that you ask I nearly forgot something", he murmured, dropped his arm and approached towards me and Toothless. I tensed up, ready for an attack, but Toothless just lifted his head and tilted his head, with a curios look in his eyes, which were fixed on the stranger, who know stood in front of him. He held out a hand and Toothless nuzzled his hand with his snout. I relaxed myself. If Toothless trusted him, I could do this as well.

The man stroke the neck of Toothless until he suddenly pressed a certain spot, which had the effect of letting a pair of crests spread up on Toothless back.

The stranger stood back and nodded. "Now he can get narrow curves better", he said towards me. "Consider it as a good-bye-gift." He went back to the place; he stood before, turned around to me and held up his arm again.

"To answer your question from before", he chuckled, "I have no idea, I never met a Night Fury before."

And with a _whoosh, _he was gone

I stood there several seconds, staring on the point, where he had been just a few moments ago, until someone pushed me in the back. I turned around and saw Toothless, who eagerly waved with his tail. I laughed.

"You're right, bud", I grinned, "We should go, as well."

I mounted Toothless and we took off, in the direction, the stranger had advised us to go.

_Toraska's POV_

"Son, have you seen _him_ around lately?" asked my father. It was about the tenth time, he asked it this week and I was tired of giving the same answer again and again.

"No father, I have not and even if he is in this village right now, you now as well as I do, that he only shows himself, when he wants to".

"Yeah, yeah, you're right", rumbled Asmenis, my father, a typical Viking, although a bit smaller then a normal one and also with more brain and fewer stubbornness considered good for a Viking.

"It's just", he continued, while we were walking towards the edge of the city, "he did not show up for six months. That's the longest time, I can remember, he did not show his face her. I mean", he gestured around, "he practically _owns_ the village. Why would he not show up here for such a long time?"

I sighed. "I don't know father and I…" I was interrupted by a scream from one of the watch towers.

"Dragon!"

"Is it this one again?" my father shouted back.

"No", came the answer, "It is smaller and black pitched. And it seems that… by Odin's beard!"

"What is it?"

"There is someone riding this dragon and it is going to land at the edge of the village!"

"Let's go" my father said and we hurried to the border of the village.

When we arrived there, a small crowd has formed, looking at the dragon, which was approaching very fast now. Everyone clenched their fists around their weapons and murmured about this dragon.

"No one attacks, when they do not attack first", my father ordered. There were a few protests, but I knew the people would obey.

The dragon landed about thirty feet away from us, growling at the crowd, but stopped instantly, when a boy, who just climbed from his back, put a hand on his head.

"Easy, bud", I could hear him whisper. "We want them to like us."

I squinted my eyes, this boy seemed rather familiar. As the son of a chief, I got to know other villages, when my father visited them. I thought about it. I had seen this boy before, but where?

"Who are you, why have you come here and why have you brought a dragon with you?" my father asked.

The boy opened his mouth to answer, when I realized, why he looked so familiar.

"You are Hiccup, the son of Stoik the Vast, chief of Berk, aren't you?" I asked.

The boys face hardened, when I mentioned his father.

"I am Hiccup, that's true" he spat out, "but Stoik is no longer my father, like Berk is no longer my home. He disowned me and made me an outcast for befriending a dragon."

The whole crowd murmured, mostly in agreement of Stoik's actions, but I just looked at him.

"Why did you befriend this dragon?" I asked. The murmurs stopped. Even my father looked at me with slight surprise.

"Because he was the only one, who accepted me for who I am" Hiccup answered.

I nodded and then turned around to my father. "When he can prove, that this dragon means no harm towards us, can he stay?" I asked him.

My father scratched his chin. "I do not know, son, it could be dangerous to have a dragon within the village. On the other hand, he can maybe help us with our little problem, if he really befriended this dragon and it does not mean any harm."

"He" stated Hiccup. My father looked confused towards him. "Toothless is a He" Hiccup told him.

Asmenis starred buffed at Hiccup. Then he began to laugh and soon the whole crowd laughed as well.

"Well", said hiccup sharply, "It seems, you do not want us here. Come on Toothless, we…"

"Wait" shouted my father, still laughing. I couldn't stop myself from laughing as well, it was just too hilarious.

"We do not laugh because you referred to your dragon as a He", said my father.

"Which kind of dragon is this, by the way?" shouted someone from the crow. I could see amused faces and the grip around the weapons were looser than before.

"He is a Night Fury", said Hiccup.

Mumbling rolled up once again. My father chuckled.

"You named a Night Fury, the offspring of lightning and death itself, Toothless?" he asked, still chuckling.

Hiccup grinned. "Show them, bud", he said towards Toothless, who just followed the conservation with lightly tilted head and a confused look. He opened his mouth and we could see the sharp, white teeth, the next moment, they were gone and he flashed a gummy smile at us.

This was too much for some villagers. They collapsed on the ground, laughing. But I was fascinated. I slowly walked towards the Night Fury and hold a hand towards him. He growled at me, but was instantly calmed down by Hiccup. I stopped about five centimeters away from his snout. The dragon hesitated and then pushed gently his snout against my hand. I began rubbing his head and he started to purr. His pupils became wide and he rolled himself on the back, to reveal his bottom.

"He looks and acts like an overgrown puppy", I said, smiling.

Hiccup laughed. "That's an excellent description of Toothless, if he does not feel threatened", he grinned.

"Alright", said my father, "your dragon does not seem to be a danger. But I still want to know, why you are here."

Hiccup turned towards my father and made a huge breath, then realesed it.

"The Darkness has sent me", he said simply.

Everyone fell silent immediately. The whole crowd just stared at Hiccup, I forgot to scratch Toothless throat and my father looked at him with a disparaging look. Then he nodded.

"Everyone, meeting in ten minutes in the Mead Hall. Tell it everyone." He turned around to Hiccup. "I am really eager to hear your story." With these words, he left. The crowd followed him

"Did I say something wrong?" Hiccup asked nervously.

"I will explain it to you later, but you just need to know now, that you can stay for a while", I smiled and also went towards the Mead Hall. Nevertheless, I understood, what Hiccup whispered towards his dragon.

"Looks like we found us a new home."


	5. New friends

Chapter 4: New friends

_No one's POV_

For the last three hours, Hiccup had told the villagers his story. How he found Toothless, befriended him, then got captured and ended up here. Asmenis had questioned him about his life before he found Toothless, while he, Hiccup and Toraska sat at the chief's table and ate. When he found out, how Hiccup's tribe hat treated him, he became angry Toraska filled in the parts, he remembered from his few visits in Berk, where he saw Hiccup getting bullied by the other teens, since he thought, Hiccup did not make clear enough, how bad he got treated,. Although this was a more private conservation, since Hiccup had not to stand in front of the other villagers and talk to them, like he had to while telling the story about Toothless, the people at the nearest table overheard it and as they passed it on, the mead hall began to fill itself with angry mumbles and whispering.

Hiccup just ended his meal and the description of the many times, Stoik just was disappointed with him, when suddenly a girl, about the age of Toraska, stood up from her table and went towards Hiccup. Asmenis looked up and asked: "What is it, Lana?"

"May I speak, chief?" she asked.

He made a vague gesture. "Feel free to say, what you have to say."

"Thanks", she said. "I think", se then addressed Hiccup, "I can speak for every villager in this hall, when I say: I am sorry, what your tribe has done to you. It is eyesore on the pride of all Vikings."

Approving murmuring grew loud, until the chief hold up his hand, to quiet everyone. He wanted to hear, what Lana wanted to say next.

"Thanks, but you do not have to feel responsible, for what my former tribe has done to me", said Hiccup, slightly irritated.

"But I think, we should offer you a new home, so you could forget, what was in your past and maybe can be happy again. It must have been awful for you, from what we heard so far."

Hiccup tried to comprehend, what she just said, when his train of thought was interrupted by a sharp laughter. Everyone looked to Toraska, who shook his head.

"You did not even hear half of what Hiccup had to go through", he said. "It was really … I cannot find words to describe it. After my second visit, I hated it to go to Berk, because I knew, I would see Hiccup, getting bullied, teased, ignored, beaten up or just getting treated, like he was not worth being a person. I could never interfere, because I had to stay at my dad's side, since these visages where rather short and they could not afford time, to search for me, if I got lost." He sighed. "Nevertheless, I agree with Lana. Hiccup's history should be enough, to convince everyone, that dragons are not dangerous, so he is no traitor to his tribe. I would let him stay, just that he can get rid of his past and begin a new life. That he could solve our little problem would be just a bonus. And I did not count in, that _he _sent him here. So I say, we let him stay. He could work at the forge, since our current blacksmith is ill."

Everyone in the hall had fallen silent, during Toraska's speech. Asmenis stood up. "Who wants Hiccup and Toothless", he looked towards the dragon, who played with several little kids and smiled, "to stay, should stand up now."

A man stood up. "I want them to stay", he said loud. "Me too", said another. "Same goes here", said three women nearly at the same time. The whole hall rose from their seats, just looking towards Hiccup.

Hiccup just sat there, shocked. He was accepted, like he was, with his mistakes and even with his best friend. A tear ran down his cheek, as he stood up.

"Thank you for your acceptance", he said while struggling, not to break down in tears. Then he smiled. "I will stay here." The whole hall broke out into cheers, welcoming Hiccup and Toothless.

Hiccup turned to the chief, smiling. "I think, I am now ready to deal with your little problem."

Asmenis nodded. "Follow me", he said.

They wandered out of the mead hall, followed by Toraska and also by Lana.

"Why are you following us?" asked Toraska irritated, when he noticed her.

"I want to see, what Hiccup will do. I think, it will be interesting, don't you think so, too?" she smiled.

He grabbed her arm, as she tried to walk past him. "But also pretty dangerous", he said.

She made a pout. "Stop being so overprotective."

"I am not overprotective, it's just…", he shrugged.

"Let her come with us to the edge of the forest, you will not convince her, to turn around", laughed Asmenis. Hiccup smiled as well, but he had a sad expression, like he remembered something, that he lost.

They stood at the border of the forest, Hiccup looking interrogative towards the big man beside him.

"You know, we need wood, to make most of our tools, to build or houses and to burn it for warmth", Asmenis said. "Our problem with the dragon is not, that he comes into our village and steals our food, but that we cannot enter the forest, without getting attacked or at least threatened by him. We are not able to collect wood anymore and since we are already in late summer, it could mean, that most of our village will freeze to death, because of a lack of firewood."

Hiccup nodded. "The dragon will most likely see the forest as his revier and you are intruders, who not only could be a threat to himself, but also damage his territory. I look what I can do about it. If I can convince the dragon, that you just need wood for surviving, you could maybe coexist." He looked into the forest. "No traces or any signs of a dragon", he murmured, or to himself, than to anyone other. He shrugged. "Anything specific, you can tell me you the dragon?" he asked.

"It's pretty big", Lana said.

"How big exactly?" he asked.

"Bigger than the ones, you call Monstrous Nightmares", stated Toraska.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "That is pretty big", he said calmly.

", Its brown, it has no forelegs, its wings make up most of his body and it sometimes attacks us with letting branches rain on our heads. Does that help you?" Asmenis asked.

Hiccup nodded. "I have an idea, which dragon this is. It will not be easy to deal with him. They are pretty territorial."

"Well", said Toraska, "we should get going, it will get dark pretty soon."

Hiccup nodded. The three of them, plus Toothless, marched into the forest, with only Hiccup knewing, what could await them.

_Hiccup's POV_

While we walked through the forest, I suddenly remembered a question, which occurred to pop up in my mind, when I delivered the message, the stranger gave me. I turned my head to Toraska, who walked beside me.

"Say, can I ask you something?" I said.

"You already did", he smirked.

"Very funny", I answered dryly. He gestured towards me to continue.

"Who is this one, who sent me her, calling himself 'The Darkness'?"

He sighed. "I hoped, you forgot about it", he mumbled.

"He has a right to know about him", said Lana softly.

Toraska sighed again. "Yes, you are right. So what do you want to know?"

"Well, who is he, why does he have such a ridiculous name and when you know about it, why did he save me?" I asked. Maybe, I could get some information about the man, who saved my life and then left me with more questions than before he offered to answer them.

"Well, first of all, I cannot answer your third question. No one knows why he does what. About your other two questions", Toraska shrugged, "'The Darkness' it's just a nickname, our village gave him, because he can vanish in the shadows every time, even when you concentrate on him. One second he is there, the next second you do not see him. Some people accuse him of using black magic, but he told my father and me, that he just had a very good assassin training and I believe that. Otherwise, he would not have to carry his swords with him." He paused for a moment. "His real name or at least, what he calls himself is Nemhil. We have no idea, if it has any meaning or if it's just a normal name. He shows up at irregular intervals in our village, staying here for two or three days and then vanishing again." He stopped.

"When he gave me this message, he said, it would assure that I could stay at least one night in this village. And when I said his 'name', everyone fell silent. Why?" I asked. This man became more mysterious, the more I got to know about him.

"It would assure you could stay the night", answered Lara, "because nearly every villager owns his life or at least the life of a loved one to him."

"How comes that?" I asked interested.

"We may not have dragon raids around here, but due to the fact, that it is unlikely to be killed by dragons during travels on the sea, we have much more pirates around here. The last raid occurred, when I was about one month old", explained Toraska. "Whenever our village is raided by pirated, he seems to appear from nowhere and fight the pirates, until they retreat. It has become a local legend around here and only new founded pirate groups try to raid us, because they do not believe it. Older pirate groups, which have existed since generations, avoid our village, because they know, it is not just a legend."

"Why should they think, it is just a legend?" I asked confused.

He looked up and looked me straight in the eyes. "Because the legend says, and that fact is even written down in our library, that the first time, he showed up and saved this village from a pirate raid", he paused and breathed in deeply, "the first time was about three hundred years ago", he said slowly.

"What?! You, you are joking, aren't you?" I shouted, shocked. Three hundred years. No human lived that long. I looked at him. "By Thor's beard, you aren't", I murmured.

"There are some theories concerning this fact" Lana said eagerly, to get into this conversation. "Some say, he was loved by the gods and they made him immortal. Others say, he is a god, who was banned from Valhalla. Some accuse him of using black magic, to suck in the life force of other living beings. And some believe that the gods do not want him to die for whatever reason and each time, he dies, his soul is reborn into a child, which looks exactly like him and will also behave like him."

I still shook my head. "Three hundred years", I muttered. "Do you know anything else?" I asked, although I was not sure, I would want to hear the answer. The former ones just brought more questions up, then they answered.

"No", Toraska, "That's all we know. We…"

He was interrupted by a screech and the sound of falling branches. I held up a hand.

"Quiet!" I whispered. I looked around carefully. "He is anywhere near us", I whispered. I suddenly saw Toothless, growling and slowly crouching towards us. Then I saw a flicker, moving towards us. "Get down!" I yelled and threw myself on the ground. I saw Toraska and Lana mimic my behavior. Just in time. A fireball flew over our heads and exploded somewhere behind us. I got up, just in time, to see the dragon landing. He was huge, bigger than any dragon, I had seen so far, except maybe Thorn, the Screaming Death, but while Thorn was long, this dragon was just, well, huge. His outstretched wings covered a large area, while the rest of his body looked small in comparison to them, only a small line and a head between these huge wings. It was brown, with two horns on his head and no legs as all. It looked at us and let out a high pitched scream

"This is it!" Toraska shouted. "Do you know what kind of dragon it is?"

"Yeah", I shouted back. "It's a Timberjack."

"Toothless", I yelled then, "come over here buddy, we have to distract him."

Toothless stood beside me and I mounted him. Then I looked back at Toraska and Lana.

"Try to stay away from his fire and look out for his wings. They are razor-sharp."

Toothless climbed in the air and I yelled to get the dragons attention. It worked, since he looked up to us.

"Alright bud", I mumbled, "Let's do this."

_No one's POV_

Hiccup shot forward on Toothless, trying to bewilder the dragon by flying in circles above him, which made him dizzy. Toraska and Lana ran away a few in yards, to then turn around and look at the spectacle, which showed to them. Toothless, still circling, lured the dragon towards a gigantic tree, while the Timberjack first try to shoot them down with fire and then flew after them. Toraska could only assume that the gigantic dragon wanted to slice the Night Fury and its rider in two halves. But the two were too fast for them and Toraska and Lana admired the team work of the two so different beings. If they didn't knew better, they could have sworn, that they were one, while they were flying. Suddenly, toothless turned around, shot a blast upwards and then quickly zoomed over the back of the Timberjack, who was not prepared for a maneuver like this. He could not dodge the branches that were falling on him, because of Toothless shot. He crashed on the ground, his right wing was buried under a really heavy branch and he could not stand up, although he did not seem to be hurt badly.

They heard a smooth swift, as Toothless landed behind them and Hiccup dismounted them. He patted the Night Fury and whispered a "Good job, bud" in his ear, before strolling over to Toraska and Lana, who still stood there, looking awestruck at the big dragon, who still tried to free himself from the branch, that was holding him down.

"That was … Wow", expressed Toraska his astonishment.

"Yeah, and now we can maybe convince him, that we are his friends", said Hiccup with a smile.

Lana blinked. "You first bury him under branches and then try to convince him, that you are his friend?" she asked, disbelief in her voice.

Hiccup laughed. "Hey, I shot Toothless down and cripple him and still we got best friend", he said. Toothless, hearing his name, purred and head butted Hiccup in affection. "Yeah, I love you also, bud", Hiccup grinned and then started walking towards the Timberjack.

"Wait, can I try?" asked Toraska suddenly.

Hiccup stopped and turned around, a surprised expression on his face.

"Why do you want to?" he replied perplex.

"I want to try out, what you told us and also, I admire the bond between you and Toothless, I want to know, if I could achieve something similar", Toraska said quickly.

"Well then, try it, but be careful, I do not know much about this species, so just follow the basic rules", Hiccup said and stepped back. "When something goes wrong, just try to retreat slowly from him, always facing him. I will try to catch his attention with Toothless."

Toraska nodded and slowly approached the Timberjack, which was still busy with the branches all over him.

"Isn't that too dangerous?" Lana whispered towards Hiccup, nearly panicking.

"As long as he sticks to what I told you, he should be fine", answered Hiccup nervously. "Although I never encountered this kind of dragon, they are basically the same to tame, for some you need some special tricks, but I think, I found out his weak spot."

The Timberjack finally noticed Toraska and hissed at him, while he still tried, to free his wing.

"It's all right", Toraska said nervously. He was glad, he didn't brought a weapon with him in first place, because he thought, it would make no sense to try and tame a dragon, while you are armed.

He still approached the Timberjack, who was hissing, but did not appear to see him as a real threat. When he stood about five feet's away from the dragon, he stopped and remembered what Hiccup told them about getting the dragons trust. He held up his hand and faced the ground behind him, while closing his eyes. Now, he had to wait, if the dragon wanted to trust him or not. The hissing had stopped and after a few seconds, he felt a gentle touch at his palm. He opened his eyes, to see the dragon nudging his snout in his hand, eyes closed. Like he had felt the gaze of the boy, the Timberjack opened his eyes and stared back. Toraska noticed that his eyes had the coulor of honey, a warm golden tone. He heard a shout from Hiccup and turned around.

Hiccup grinned, held his thumb up and then shouted:"Scratch his back!"

Toraska shrugged and began to scratch the dragon, which resolved into a series of deep purrs from him. The purrs intensified, as Toraska made his way towards the back of the Timberjack and emitted pure joy.

Suddenly, Lana appeared beside Toraska and laid her hand on the dragon's snout. The Timberjack just opened his eye shortly and then nuzzled his snout deeper into her palm, still purring from Toraska's scratches.

"Well then, bud", Toraska heard Hiccup in the background, "I think, we should help him getting out of this mess, since we are responsible for it, shouldn't we?" He could hear Toothless grunt in agreement in the background, but he could not get his eye lose from the girl beside him, who now nuzzled the dragons head with her own one. She looked up and saw directly in his eyes, a spark in them, like she wanted to play a prank on him every minute. He gulped, as he looked into her warm, chocolate-brown eyes. Wait, when had he realized, that her eyes where chocolate-brown?

Their moment was destroyed, when they heard someone clearing his throat next to them. They looked up and saw Hiccup, standing next to them, with a smile on his lips, but both saw a sad glint in his eyes.

"If you could help Toothless and me, we would be faster and you could continue cuddling with the dragon", he said in lightly amused voice.

The two of them saw at the dragon, then back to Hiccup and nodded.

"Well then, we should start", he said.

When they were finished with removing the branches, the Timberjack straightened up and stretched his wings carefully, while Hiccup examined his right wing.

"Just a bruise, it will not hinder him in any way", he said, after he was finished and Toraska and Lana sighed relieved.

"Well then", Toraska said towards the dragon, "could you please stop attacking us, when we come in the forest? We need to collect wood or we will freeze to death in winter, do you understand this?"

The dragon looked at him with wide eyes, his pupils deleted and then nodded.

"Thanks that really means a lot to me", Toraska said and hugged the dragon, while he hummed. "Well then, we have to go, watch you."

When Toraska turned around, he felt a nudge in his back. He turned around again and saw the Timberjack, which stood there with big eyes and crooned sadly.

"You don't want us to leave?" Toraska asked and the gigantic dragon nodded, which looked pretty funny, because half his body moved up and down with the head. "You want to come with us then?" asked Toraska and smiled. The answer was a head butt from the dragon, which nearly let him fall on the ground. He petted the snout of the Timberjack; no his Timberjack, maybe their Timberjack, when Lana would want to and the group of five, consisting now of two dragons and three humans, made their way back towards the village.

**Sorry that it took this long to update, I have multiple excuses, but I do not want to annoy you with them. So let's just say, I was too lazy (partly true, but not entirely).**

**Then I want to say, yes, what you read about my OC sounds like magic, but I have found a more or less realistically explanation for it. It is logical (well, as said, more or less), and is based on something, that is said about a special body liquid from the Night Fury.**

**Last but not least, I have to apologize for the last two chapters. They were a rich source of grammar mistakes, because my beta reader got ill and has still not recovered. If anyone wants to beta read this, he or she can PM me, although I would not care, if it stays about the same level of English, it is right now, which is not very high, but…. *shrug* I am here for writing stories not to teach anyone English :D.**


	6. Everything changes, one way or another

**So, Night (NightFury999, leader of the G.M.A.D. – do I have to say her whole title now?), well anyways, she does not want me to include anything related with the G.M.A.D. in this story and so I won't. I still have lots of ideas, but this will be the only hint towards magic in this story, since any other would include the G.M.A.D. (heck, it's a pain to write this every time).**

_Chapter 2: Pain and loss, hope and happiness_

It was the evening of the day after his ninth birthday. He had gotten a new bow, pitch black, because he liked to sneak onto his prey while hunting and therefore preferred black clothes, because he liked to hunt at dawn or during night. This had lead to the most original nickname; the villagers had ever come up with: 'Night Hunter'. He also got twenty new arrows and archery gloves, a present from his uncle, the local tanner. He wanted to test it out, because yesterday had been too hectic and too tiring and today he had been just too busy, to test it. He just wanted to make a few shots on targets, he had set on at a cliff, he was still too tired from yesterday and going tired on a hunting trip was never a good idea. In the best case, you would just miss your target, but you could end up being attacked by it, hurt yourself with your own weapon, or, worst case, both together.

He spanned his bow and marveled how easy and fluid it was going. It also had a great amount of power within this string, because he just spanned the bow for about half, the arrow, he had laid in shot straightaway in the target and even penetrated the aim. Also, it was easier to take aim with the bow; it seemed not to shake as much as his old bow had. But maybe this was just him, getting more experience.

He trained with bow till midnight and then decided, he should go to sleep, so he could go on a hunting trip with his mother tomorrow. When he started walking home, he saw, that there was a flickering red light, where his village was. A red flickering light normally meant fire and he speeded up, so he could help with putting the fire out. When he got over the hill, he stood still, struck in shock by the sight of his village. Nearly every house was burning, there were bodies lying everywhere and he could see three foreign ships, anchoring in the bay, that was the natural harbor of his village. They were under attack from pirates. He started running towards the village, when a figure stumbled out from behind a burning and collapsing house and shot an arrow in the dark. He recognized the figure as his mother. She had seen him as well, but instead of running towards him, she pointed back into the forest and mouthed 'Hide'. He shook his head vigorously and continued running towards her. She made an attempt to repeat the gesture, when her face suddenly showed a blink of surprise and pain. When she looked down, she saw a sword sticking out of her chest. He stopped in his tracks, unable to move or do something, just standing there and looking helpless, as his mother died. She looked up again, desperation and love in her eyes and mouthed again 'Hide'. Then the sword was pulled out of her chest and she broke down, revealing the man behind her, who was grinning madly. He could see the symbol on his chest plate. A bear head without eyes, mouth wide open, revealing his fangs, stuck on a lance. He could even see the painted blood, which ran down the lance from the bears neck stump. He heard tales about this special group of pirates. They only raided small Viking villages, where they would have the least losses and they could retreat before anyone in the next village could notice them. He had heard that they did not only raid the villages for the values, but also to kill, just to murder everyone for fun, who was within this village. They left the villages just with corpses lying around, they did not even take the domestic animals, they slaughtered every living being inside the village. Their hallmark was that they left a bear head with no eyes, stuck on a lance on the village square in each village they raided and that they made a pyramid with the heads of the most villagers beside it. That brought them their nickname, the Bearheaders. **(AN: Oh god, someone kill me for this pun, please!)**

He knew that he should just ignore what his mother said. He knew that his live would not make any sense without the villagers, he grew up with. He knew that he should head down there and should try to kill as many pirates as possible with his bow. But he couldn't. He couldn't ignore the desperate expression of his mother that had burned its way inside his head. She did not wanted him to die here and he could not ignore her last wish. So he turned around and ran back into the forest, while tears where steaming from his eyes, down his cheeks and dropped on the ground. A small part of him wondered what someone, who would look into his eyes, would feel now. If this person just got sad, because that boy was crying or if this unlucky one understood the whole amount of pain, the boy was going through and would feel, how a small part of him was dying, like a small part the boy was dying, as he left his friends and family behind, the village bathed in the red light of uncontrolled fire, while monsters roamed the street and took everyone's life, when their gaze fell upon them. He looked back one last time and this last look would have broken his heart, if it was not already shattered into pieces. He saw how the last few burning houses slowly collapsed, while the flames were still dancing, bathing it in an unreal red light, while the last remains of his village faded into ash.

He again turned around and ran, no tears were leaking from his eyes this time. It was like the flames had not only burned his family, his home and a small part of himself, but also his ability to cry. He was not able to shed tears anymore, the only thought he had now, was running away from these pirates, no these monsters, just as far away and as fast as possible. He closed his eyes for a second, trying to get the image of the burning village out of his head, so he would only have good memories within him on his escape. He kept his eyes closed, as the image did not want to vanish and suddenly started to wonder, why he did not crash against a tree. He was a good hunter, but he was not that good, that he could keep running in full speed through the forest, with his eyes closed and just dodged every obstacle in his way. Even then, he did not remember dodging anything. He opened his eyes, just to find himself on a beach, running parallel to the sea. He frowned. He knew the forest around the village, it belonged to his home like the village had, well better had had. He did not remember this beach. The forest looked different too. Instead of oaks, elms and ashes, there were other trees. He knew them; the village elder had described them once in a story. They were called coniferous trees. But she also said, that they either grew in higher regions or more north. Since he was at the sea, he could not be on a mountain, so he had to be north. Far north. But how did he get that far north? He remembered nothing, while he ran with closed eyes, except a small thunder, like there was a storm very far away and a rumble in his body, like he had jumped from an about a feet high cliff, although he did not jump at all.

He noticed more differences in his surroundings, for example the beach consisting out of little rocks instead of sand, each about as big as the first part of his thumb. There was a cold wind blowing constantly and he shivered. It was summer at home and even in winter, it was not as cold, as it was here right now.

He knew that this was of no importance now and that he just tried to ease the pain he felt by thinking of something, anything but his destroyed village. But he also knew that this would not work for long. Sooner or later he would think of it again and the pain would come back, as bad as before, if not worse.

But right now, he could distract himself with the riddle of his whereabouts. But before he went on to explore his environment; he remembered that he needed a name, if he should stumble across a village. Since he lost everything and everyone he knew and loved, he was now nothing and no one. He remembered Roman soldiers visiting his village once, talking in a bizarre language and also mentioning two words, which represented him right now. His new name would be Nemhil. He nearly smiled at his new name, until he remembered why he had to have a new name in the first place. His new identity would be a shadow within the shadows, apart from the human world, ad human stole everything from him. Besides that, he also remembered how his mother told him once about the meaning of his name in an old language and he couldn't bear hearing this name everytime he was addressed. His name literally burnt his village down. He turned around, facing the woods, determined to find out, where he was. He had nothing, but himself, his bow and the determination to live, to prove the pirates wrong, who claimed that no one ever survived their raids.

It has been a few months, since he lost everything. He still did not know where he was nor how he did get here. He had survived in the woods, hunting with his bow and wandered through large parts of the woods, always going north, while orienting himself with the help of the stars. He had not seen a human village nor any signs of another human being, but he had seen something else.

Dragons!

In his village, everyone believed in mysterious creatures like Dragons, Pegasi or Satyrs, but no one, not even the elder, has ever seen one of them. And now he had seen them, sometimes alone, sometimes in a swarm, very different kinds, but every time breathtaking and majestic. He would have loved to observe them and write down their behavior patterns, differences and similarities – this had been one of his favorite pastimes in the forest, when he had not been hunting – but since he had neither a journal nor a charcoal with him, he could not as he wanted. But he still learned a few things about dragons.

For once, they were not hostile, if not threatened. While hunting, he once found a lonely dragon, who resembled a bird, except for the teeth, the scales, the claws, the spikes on its tail an its big, intelligent eyes. **(AN: for those, who did not get it: Deadly Nadder)** Oh yeah, and of course its size. He had an arrow on his bow and was not surprised, when he saw that the dragon hissed at him and got in a defensive fighting stance, ready to attack, when he moved. He immediately dropped his bow with the arrow and held up his hands, so it could see that he had no weapons and was no threat. First, he had no interest in hurting this magnificent creature and even if he intended to do so, he doubted that he could even scratch the scales of the dragon with his arrow.

The dragon cocked its head to one side and looked at him with curious eyes. Its tail spikes, which had stood up, lay themselves down on the tail again. It squawked once and then turned around and flew away. He was left behind, still in this position, which signaled, that he was no threat and looked after the dragon, wishing, he could fly with it.

Also the dragons seemed to know, he was a human and even within the species there occurred different behaviors. While the ones with the tail spikes where normally more trusting, than the ones who could set themselves on fire, he also met one of the latter, who was more trusting, than any dragon, he had met before, while he also met one of the first species, who did not even waited for his reactions, when he saw it, but tried to kill him immediately, even when he dropped all weapons. To his luck, it lost him and he could go back and fetch his bow.

But one encounter, he would never forget. He was hunting, when he heard the roaring of a dragon, he did not know. He became pretty good at recognize the dragons through their call, but he did not knew this one. It was a frustrated and painful roar, so much he could tell, but nothing more. He darted through the forest, towards the roar and came to an opening, where he saw the spectacle.

There was a dragon, about ten feet long, with four legs and a dark, earth brown color. It stood on his hind legs, surrounded by at least thirty wolves' cadavers, but it had some serious wounds and there were still five wolves left, surrounding the dragon and growling at it. The dragon roared again and one of the wolves darted forward, to bite the dragon in his flank. Without knowing, why he did it, he shot the wolves with one his arrows, killing it instantly. The wolves growled, momentarily forgetting about the dragon and turning towards the new threat. This was a mistake, since two wolves suddenly yelped and then went silent, when the dragon crushed their skull under its claws. He shot two more arrows, each killing one wolves and the dragon killed the last one by biting its head off.

After the battle, the dragon got on all fours, panting heavily and then looked at him, then motioned with its head, that he should come closer. He did, as he was asked and the dragon nudged him inside a cave that was opening inside a hill behind it. There was a nest and he assumed that the dragon protected it from the wolves. It nudged him further towards the nest, until he could see into it. There was a little dragon, well about as big as a dog, curled protectively around an egg, which was completely white, with a few blue shimmers in it. He stretched his hand out, hesitated, looked at the bigger dragon, which just nodded and then touched the little dragons head. The little dragon looked at him and then yelped and jumped on his lap, nuzzling against his chest. He smiled and then paused. He hadn't smiled since 'it' happened. He looked at the bigger dragon, whose panting became weaker. It motioned with its head towards him, then towards the small dragon and the egg. He could see the pleading in its eyes and nodded. He silently promised the dragon, to take care of these two. The dragon sighed and then collapsed on the floor, its breathing stopped completely. The smaller dragon whined, entangled itself from his arms and nudged the bigger dragon's snout. He silently picked it up and stroke its back, while it nuzzled itself back in his chest again, still whining. He had found himself a new family and even though one family member died within the first moments, he silently promised to himself, that the others would survive, even at the cost of his own live.

**So, anyone, who can guess his original name? :D A necessary hint, it's from 'Eragon'.**


	7. Go after him

**So, I am very sorry, that it took so long. Uni started and I had real issues, how to write this chapter. I did not want it to sound like a copy from NFSLover's story. I already had that one, it would be lame, to do it a second time. Thanks to Pegueng to point out some mistakes with regards to content. And yes, he will learn something new, Shadwoda, do not worry and have fun with the cookie :D. I really want to thank everyone for their positive reviews, the favs, follows and for generally reading this stuff. The next few chapters will be up sooner, because I have quite a few ideas for them.**

**Everyone, who does not understand the last paragraph, take it as a little joke. Everyone who understands it, yes, I asked Night, she even read this paragraph and it will be the only hint till the end (maybe). So, new chapter.**

Chapter 6: Go after him

_Five years after Hiccup left_

_No one's POV_

Astrid always had hated ship journeys. On the other hand, it was the only way to travel since they lived on an island, so she could not really do anything against it. It was not so much the ship itself, which made the journey unpleasant or the sea. It were rather the other passengers, she could not avoid, because there was not enough space on the ship, to do that. She had to bear with Fishlegs rambling about dragon facts, which occurred whenever they saw a dragon at the horizon, were attacked by one, which luckily happened only one time, or when the conversation only seemed to go in the direction of dragons. She had been responsible for the teens, which meant she had to make sure, they did not set fire to the boat, blew it up, sink it or a combination of these factors; gods beware maybe of all three. The worst thing was that she could not avoid Snotlout and his constant flirting attempts. In the first week of their journey, she punched him, whenever he tried to snake his arm around her waist or tried to kiss her, but she got tired with it and now just tried to stay with the chief, since Snotlout did not tried to flirt with her, when the chief could hear her. The downside of this arrangement was that she had either to listen to Gobber's horrendous stories about trolls, elves or Thor knows what creatures or talk with Stoic about dragon training and dragon killing. She still was not fond of it, after Hiccup parted from them, but could manage it, although only if another life was in danger.

Hiccup was another disturbing factor. In the village, she could always distract herself with work, may it be dragon training, fighting, hurling her axe or, newly turned up, with the chores, her mom insisted she should do. In the evenings she was normally so flattened, that she just fell in her bed and instantly fell asleep.

But on the ship, she had next to none distraction possibilities and so Hiccup invaded her mind more often, then over the last three years. Mostly she thought about how he was doing and if he was still alive, but sometimes she allowed herself dreaming about the possibility, that Hiccup came back to Berk and ended the war with the dragons and he would stay. She normally mentally slapped herself for that kind of thoughts, but she still secretly craved for it. The war had gone on and on, she was tired of it, especially after she had to kill one very young dragon, who tried to kill little girl. She could somehow understand the dragon, it had already been wounded by a spear and the little girl held a dagger in its direction, but she still killed it, because otherwise, it would have been the girl, who would now not live anymore.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the – now very annoying – voices of the teens. Fishlegs blabbered something about Scauldrons, the twins had one of their occasional fights and Snotlout boasted how he could kill any dragon, whether it was underwater or not. She sighed and was glad, that they should arrive at their target around midday. She was not sure, if she could stand the others any longer then one day, without killing at least one of them, if not all four.

Through the blabbering of the other teens, she could hear how Tuffnut suddenly asked a question, he certainly had asked a thousand times: "Why are we exactly heading to this village again? Shiltered or Shampered or something like this?" She could hear the chief sigh and she would have really liked to sigh as well. He had asked this so often, she really began not only to question his ability to think, but his ability to use his head for anything else, then bang it together with his sister's head.

"It's named Sheltered", the chief said, "and we are heading there for two reasons. First, it is said, that they have a really good blacksmith and we could use some weapons, after half of our weapon storage was destroyed in the last raid and we cannot replace them fast enough." He shot a look at Gobber who held his hands, better his hand and his hand replacement, which was an axe at the moment, up defensively.

"Do not look at me like that, I am doin' everythin', I can, but I am only one man and I do not get younger."

"You had no problems to maintain the forge alone before", huffed Stoik.

"Yeah, but that was before the … 'incident'."

Stoik just shook his head and then looked back at Tuffnut. "Second we want to ask for help against the dragons. Maybe when another village helps us, we can turn this war over for us."

"Phew", exclaimed Snotlout, "we do not need any help. We will win this war without the help of outsiders; we should not embarrass ourselves by asking for help."

"A chief does, what is best for his village", Stoik roared, "If that means, he has to swallow his pride and ask for help, he will do that"

Snotlout shrank noticeable. "Yes, sir", he answered quietly.

Stoik just nodded and turned around, so he faced the lean bow. "There is a third reason, why we go to that village", he continued calmly, "In this area, there live next to no dragons, so the probability of pirates is much higher than in the waters around Berk. But there is a legend of a man, who protects this village from pirate raids and that now for about three hundred years. This is the reason, why the village is named 'Sheltered'. They do not have to fear dragon raids, because dragons are rarely seen around there and pirates fear to attack it. Of course", he laughed shortly, "it is impossible, that a single man protects the village since three hundred years, but it seems, that there could be an organization, who does this. We trade with some of the pirates and one of them told me this story and said, his grandfather tried to attack this village with around sixty man. He said, his grandfather told him, they were fended off by a single man. If we could find this organization and ask them for help in this war, it would be a great step towards victory."

Everyone fell silent after that. Then Snotlout snorted.

"I bet, I could beat this man in a fight", he stated proudly and flexed his muscles, while looking at Astrid, like she would immediately agree with him.

"Alright", Astrid snapped, "we throw you on the next ship with around sixty pirates and you are not allowed back on this ship, before they surrender or you defeated them all." With this words she stomped to the lean bow, trying hard to not let her temper get the better of her and then throw her axe at Snotlouts face. She really hoped, that she could escape Snotlout's flirting attempts in the village or else, Berk had to search for a new heir.

_Toraska's POV_

"Alright, get the stone slabs out of the stable and put straw in them. There can be no hint, this stables inhabit anything else then sheep", I yelled over the noise of twenty dragons, heaving the food station we build for them, from its place in the middle of the village square.

"Toraska", yelled a man from the other side of the village square, "The men need help in the harbor. They cannot convince Turquois to hide himself. Maybe you can."

"Alright, I am on my way", I yelled back.

Since my father got the letter from Trader Johann that Berk's chief and a delegation would visit our village about a week from then, the whole village had been like a gigantic beehive. It was not easy to hide all the evidences of dragons living in this village for now about five years, but we had to try. With the dragons as our friends and Nemhil, who protected us from the pirates just through his reputation, it would be very unfortunate to make ourselves new enemies.

The announcement of Berks visitation brought the pain of Hiccup's departure four years ago back, but for the first time since then, I also felt slight relief, that he was not here anymore. I would not like to know, how he would have reacted, if he had to face his former father and his former tribe mates, especially after they tried to kill Toothless. I would say, Hiccup, Lana and I became pretty close friends within the year, he stayed here, but still, no one was as close to Hiccup as Toothless was.

Hiccup's departure had not been as surprising as most villagers thought. I knew that he still thought of someone in his own village and that it pained him to see me and Lana together. He was still happy for us, but there was always that glint in his eyes, which symbolized a pain, deeper then I could think of. I knew it, partly because it was written on his face, partly because Toothless told me about it. The other reason was more visible towards others; he was restless and could not sit still or just relax for a few minutes. I anticipated that he would leave one day, maybe together with Nemhil, to discover the world and study new dragons, but it was quite a shock, that it came so early.

_Flashback_

_"Hey there, Hiccup", I greeted, while I walked into the forge, although I could not see him. But he lived in the forge and around this time, he normally tried to improve Toothless's harness, saddle or prosthesis. But this time, the forge was empty and cold._

_"Hiccup?" I asked, while going in the back room. It was tidy, the bed was made, a few drawings and sketches lay on the desk, but it were less than there used to be._

_I then noticed that the back door was only left ajar, opened it and went through. On the cliff behind the forge, Hiccup looked at the sea and the horizon, with Toothless by his side, both as unmovable as a statue. By his feet, I could spot a backpack, already packed and with two swords and a bow attached to it._

_"So you are leaving us, huh?" I asked, standing beside him. Toothless looked up to me and I scratched him under his chin, which resolved in a deep, rumbling purr._

_"Yeah", Hiccup said and smiled at me, "I somehow have the feeling that I have to move on. When I stop, the pain will close up to me and I do not know if I am strong enough, to bear him."  
"You must not do that, you know? You have friends here. We all like you."_

_"That is one of the reasons, why I have to go. It reminds me too much of what could have been, if they would have listened to me. Also", he sighed and looked back at the sea, "seeing you and Lana happy together is great, but it hurt something deep inside me. Something I cannot burry, as long as I stay here."_

_"There is no need to bury it, Hiccup", I said softly, "Try to overcome it."_

_"For that, I would also need to travel", he said and shook his head, "No, I made my decision some time ago. I only stayed so long, because I did not want to leave this village behind without a proper blacksmith."_

_"Ow, that hurts. I thought, you stayed, because you like us", I said and faked a hurt expression._

_He laughed and replied: "Never, I was only nice enough, to not mention it."_

_We got both serious again. "What are you waiting for?" I asked._

_"Nemhil said, he would either pick me up or send me a Terrible Terror, which would lead me to a location, where he would definitely pick me up later on." He paused for a moment. "There it is", he said then and pointed at a tiny black spot, which turned out to be a yellow Terrible Terror. "Well, we have to go", he said and shouldered his backpack. "Say good-bye to everyone for me, will you?"_

_"You should do it yourself", I said, trying to suppress my tears._

_"I am not sure, if I could", h smiled weakly and then hugged. "See you around", he whispered into my ear. He mounted Toothless, who nodded towards me and then they took off, following the Terrible Terror._

_I stood on the cliff, long after they could not be seen anymore, just staring at the point, where they vanished from my view._

_"Toraska?" I heard Lana asking and then a hand stroked my cheek. "Is he gone?" she asked, concerned. I could only nod and gulp. She hugged me and I could smell her hair, feel her cheek pressing against my neck. "We will see him again", she whispered._

_I nodded again. Yeah, we would definitely see him again. _

_Flashback end_

I was so deep in thoughts, I did not realize, I already arrived at the harbor. I walked over to the men, who tried to convince Turquois, our personal harbor guardian, to hide himself, during the time; Berk Vikings would stay on the island. I could see that the Scauldron stubbornly shake its head and sighed. That could be really hard work.

"Oh, good you are here, Toraska", one of the man said exhausted. "Maybe you can blow some sense into this bullheaded dragon's brain." He shot a glare at Turquois, who just snorted.

"Look Turquois", I began, "this Vikings are very hostile towards dragons. They would attack you, when you do not hide."

_"A reason more, to stay", _he hissed,_ "I need to protect you from them. Better, I sink their ships before they can drop their anchor, so they cannot attack you."_

"No", I said, "they will not attack us, as long as they see not, that we are allied with the dragons. Therefore, you staying in this harbor would prove this and they would attack us, because you stayed here."

_"You mean"_, he growled and looked slightly pained, _"I am a danger towards you?"_

"Yes…I mean, no, it is… it is complicated. Look", I said and put a hand on his snout, "we are really thankful, that you protect our harbor and does not want anyone to harm us. But in this special case, they will not attack us, unless we give them a reason to. Sadly, you would be such a reason. But, I make you an offer. You stay under the water surface, as long as the Vikings are here and when they start to attack us, you can sink their ships, alright?"

He slowly nodded._ „But if I only get the slightest impression, they are hurting anyone on this island; I will immediately sink their ships."_ With these words, he slowly sank under the water surface.

I sighed exhausted but proud; this was one of the last things to do. Now, I only had to convince the most stubborn dragon in this village, to hide in the forest during the Vikings stay. That would be a real challenge.

I found him, together with Lana, on the flower field in the forest. Razor had developed a unique protective instinct over me and Lana, only excelled by the protective instinct from Toothless over Hiccup. He liked it, when we two stayed together, so he could have us both in his vision all the time, but in this case, eh understood, that we had to part for a while. I had to manage many tasks in the village and he and Lana would probably only stood in our ways. Of course, I would never say that in her face, but the sight of here, sitting in the flower field, humming a small lullaby, while braiding a flower crown, filled me with inner peace. I snuck towards her and wrapped my arms around her, she just kept humming, but I saw smile creeping on her face and she lowered the flower crown to reach up and stroke my cheek.

"Hey, my love", I whispered into her hear.

"Hey", she whispered back. Razor watched us, in his eyes this amused sparkle, he always had, when we shared some affection. "How is it going in the village?" she asked, while turning around. She positioned the flower crown on my head and giggled like a little girl.

"It is going very good, thank you for the flowers, by the way", I smiled. "There is only one task left." My gaze shifted towards Razor.

_"No"_, he growled and the amused sparkle vanished from his eyes, "_Don't even think about it. I will not leave you unprotected with more than twenty bloodthirsty Vikings by your side."_

"Oh, come on", I complained, "He has maximal ten Vikings with him; and we are anything else then unprotected. We outnumber them easily, even if he brings fifty Viking warriors with him.

_"Is is still far too dangerous"_, he growled, _"I will not hide in the forest, while you are in danger."_

"Look", I tried to argue, "they will not attack us. From what they wrote in the letter, they only want to buy some weapons and ask us for help against the dragons."

_"Yeah"_, he snarled, _"and the second, you refuse to help them, they will cut you down, accusing you of treason against one of your dumb Viking laws."_

"That is not, how it works", I said exhausted. I turned to Lana, who had a smirk on her face. "Could you say also something to that?" I asked her.

"No", she said and her smirk got bigger, "this is far too enjoyable to interrupt it."

I turned back to Razor. "We will try to stay far enough away from them that they cannot attack us, without us reacting. I promise", I pleaded.

He hissed and wagged his head, obviously thinking about it. _Only, if I can stay at the edge of the forest, to immediately charge in, when something happens"_, he then stated.

"Okay", I agreed.

"Ship sighted!" we heard a guard calling out.

"That should be them", Lana said, "Come on, we need to go down to the docks."

_"Just the hint of a hint, that they are threatening one of you and I will attack"_, Razor warned me.

"Well, then we should not let them threaten us, right?" I smiled weakly and made my way towards the harbor.

_No one's POV_

Asmenis stood already on the pier, when the two arrived. Toraska stopped beside him and slung his arm around Lana's waist.

"Everything complete?" the chief murmured towards him, without taking his eyes from the approaching ship.

"Yeah, although we have to pray, the dragons stay in their hideout", his son replied.

Asmenis nodded and then put on his chiefly smile, he used when he had to deal with other tribe chiefs. The ship stopped at the pier and seven figures went on the pier.

The big one, Toraska knew, was Berk's chief. He remembered him from his voyages with his father. The one with the peg leg and the peg hand was the village's blacksmith; Gobber was his name, when he was not mistaken. When he saw the other five persons, he grinded his teeth.

One was a burly Viking, nearly as big as Stoik, with blonde hair. Although he looked very strong, there was a certain softness in his eyes.

Two Vikings looked extremely alike, both tall, long blond hair and a somewhat stupid expression.

Another one had brown hair and the typical stature of a Viking, although he was smaller than the first one. He had a despising expression on his face and looked rather cruel.

The last one was a girl, long blonde hair, blue eyes and an axe over her shoulder. She had a bored, but somehow relieved expression on her face. Toraska could understand her. After two weeks on a ship with these companions, he would also be relieved to get on land again.

"Are these the teens, who bullied Hiccup?" Lana whispered towards him.

He slightly nodded and then pointed on the big Viking with the brown hair. "This is Snotlout, his cousin. He bullied him together with Ruffnut and Tuffnut", he pointed on the twins, who seemed to have a fight about something, "I still cannot say, who is who. The big one is Fishlegs. He is a softie, but very intelligent."

"Then this girl must be Astrid", Lana said and examined her.

"Yeah, that's her", he said bitter.

"Welcome to Sheltered, chief Stoik", his father boomed. "I also welcome your escort." He nodded towards the blacksmith and the teens.

"Why did we have to come again?" muttered Snotlout.

Astrid wacked him with her axe. "So we get experience with diplomacy and now shut up", she hissed.

"Thanks for the warm greeting", Stoik replied, "I am sorry, but we would like to get to the point right now. We will be missed long enough within our village, because the voyage takes so long."

"Very well, then what do you want to speak about first?" Asmenis asked. Toraska could see the slight irritation in his face.

"We would like to look at a few weapons first. The other reason we came for, can be better talked about at supper with mead", Stoik explained.

"Then you have to speak with my son", Asmenis said and waved Toraska forward. "He is our blacksmith, since our master blacksmith decided to travel the world."

Toraska nearly chuckled. This was not only not a lie, it was the whole truth. His father just decided not to tell them, who this blacksmith was and why he decided to travel.

"If you follow me, I bring you to our forge", he said and then turned around followed by Lana and the Berkians. He heard steps growing louder and then a voice.

"Hey there, I am Snotlout, heir of Berk and the most manly Viking, you will ever see."

He looked over his shoulder to see Snotlout, trying to grin and strike a bodybuilder pose while walking. Lana just looked disgusted. Without slowing his steps, he said over his shoulder: "Oh yes, I forgot to introduce ourselves, thank you for reminding me. I am Toraska, heir of Sheltered and this young lady is my betrhoded, Lana." He saw, how Snotlout face fell. "She is one of our best fighters, but has no sympathy for useless flirting, so I would be careful, Snotlout. You may be the heir of Berk, but if you stay on this course, your family will not inherit the leadership very long."

After his words, there was silence, until he noticed that Gobber closed the gap between them.

"Do you know, why the former blacksmith stopped workin' an' went travelin'?" the blacksmith asked.

Toraska just shrugged. "Personal problems. It is now four years that he left, maybe he will come back, when he solved them." Although he did not believe it.

Gobber just nodded and then beamed at the sight of the now appearing forge.

"Well then, I look, what we have in storage, if you have any specific wishes, I have to forge it first. Anything in particular or just weapons?"

While Stoik began to go through the list of weapons, they would need, together with Toraska and Gobber, the teens roamed around the forge, looking for something interesting. Astrid found an axe, that was shaped just like hers, except for a few decorations, but it was far too light, to be of any use. She frowned about it and then decided to interrupt the discussion.

"Say, Toraska, wasn't it?" He turned around nodded. "Why is this axe so light? It cannot be of any use in battle."

"It is made of a new alloy, our master blacksmith discovered, shortly before he began his travels", Toraska answered. "It is harder then steel, but significantly lighter. Try it, if you do not believe me. This wooden block is for practical use."

She nodded and stepped towards the wooden block. She had the attention of everyone, Toraska and Lana wanted to see, how she would handle an axe, Stoik and Gobber were interested in this new material and the teens just wanted to see Astrid in action. She held up the axe and brought it down with a war cry. The axe chopped through the whole wooden block, before leaving a dent in the anvil, it was standing on.

"Wow", she breathed, "that is a pretty sturdy axe.

"Can you forge all our weapons from this metal?" Stoik asked.

"We do not use any other metal for our weapons or tools anymore, so yes", answered Toraska, while Gobber stepped beside Astrid and reached for the axe, to examine it.

"This form…", he murmured, "No, it cannot be…" Then his eyes widened and he quickly walked back to Stoik and Toraska. He signaled the teens to come as well. Astrid wondered, why, but she still followed. She wanted that axe.

"Say, lad", he interrupted the conversation between Stoik and Toraska, "who forged this axe?"

"Our master blacksmith", Toraska replied, confused about the question.

"Does your master blacksmith 'as a name?", Gobber asked.

"Y-yes", Toraska said nervously and took a step back.

"Do you mind tellin' us 'is name? Or should I guess who it is?"

Toraska took a second step back and his eyes widened.

"I personally think that your master blacksmith is no one other than…'iccup", Gobber finished.

Everyone looked at him, then Stoik began to laugh. "Do not make a joke like that, Gobber. Hiccup is", his voice broke and he began to whisper, "Hiccup is dead."

'"I know, when I have a piece of work from 'iccup in my 'ands", Gobber insisted stubborn, "The lad's working pattern is unmistakable."

Stoik got angry. "Now listen Gobber, if you not stop this joke, I will…", he began to roar, but was interrupted by Toraska.

"No, Stoik", he looked up and smiled sadly. Lana stood beside him, arm around his waist for support and looked concerned at him. "Goober is right. This axe was forged by Hiccup, although it is now more than four years ago. I should have thought about that and hide all the weapons, he had forged. You have a good eye, Gobber."

Silence fell over the forge and Toraska looked at the expressions of the Vikings standing before him. Gobber looked triumphantly, but slightly sad at the axe in his hand, Stoik had a shocked expression, Snotlout's expression was rather annoyed, the twin's expression was unreadable and Fishlegs had little smile on his face, while he looked a bit nostalgic on the weapon. Astrid's expression was by far the most interesting; it was a mix of frustration, anger, sadness, desperation and…was that guilt?

Stoik opened his mouth to break the silence, but Snotlout pre-empted him.

"What does it has to do with our mission here?" he said ruddily, "We are here to buy weapons and look for recruits, to fight against dragons, not to look for a small, weak, useless runt, who betrayed his own tribe and everything, Vikings stand for."

Stoik again wanted to speak, but was that time interrupted by Lana, who had dug her fingernails deeper and deeper in Toraska's skin, with every insult, Snotlout shot at Hiccup.

"Take that back", she said in a very low voice.

"Why should I take back, what is true?" Snotlout asked.

"Hiccup is one of the bravest, most intelligent, nicest and definitely strongest Vikings, this world has ever seen!" Lana shouted. "It is a disgrace, that you took his place as heir!"

"You little bitch, you take that back!" Snotlout shouted and slapped her. She shrieked and Snotlout laughed dirty. Suddenly he was whirled around and looked in Toraska's cold eyes.

"Run", he just said.

Snotlout began to laugh. "Why should I run, you cannot scare me", he taunted.

"Remember the dragon, Hiccup befriended?" Toraska asked, still with that cold gaze. "Well he showed us to do it, as well. The first dragon, we befriended, was a Timberjack and he is very protective over me and Lana. So if I was you, I would run, because he definitely does not like it, when his humans are hurt." Snotlout eyes widened and then he began to shiver as a loud roar was heard from outside the forge.

_"Who was it, who hurt her?"_ Toraska could hear Razor roar from outside. _"Get him out and I swear, I will skin him alive, rip his skull in three parts, slice him in slabs so thin, they are blown away by the wind, I will…"_

"Razor calm down, I think, he just wanted to apologize, right?" Toraska said and looked at Snotlout with a lifted eyebrow.

Snotlout nodded and gulped. "I-I am sorry."

Lana just nodded with a face made out of stone and then walked right out of the door.

Toraska let Snotlout go and sighed. "Well then, we all should go down in the Great Hall, there we can explain it to you better."

Everyone just nodded and followed him outside. There they saw a Timberjack, with Lana standing at his head, who seemed to whisper something in his ear, while he sniffed at the bruise on her cheek. He looked at the group mistrusting and shot Snotlout a death glare.

"Since you know it now, there is no need for the other dragons to stay hidden. But I have to ask you, to leave your weapons at the forge. Dragons get hostile around weapons, especially, when they are worn by strangers."

"Why should I leave my weapon here? Who gave you the permission, to order us around?" asked Snotlout, who had some of his old confidence back.

"First I am the heir of the village. Second, you are free to stay here, if you do not want to lay your weapons down, but I would not want to be near, if Razor got you alone."

Everyone hesitated, except for Astrid, who looked at him emotionless, then nodded and laid her axe on the entry counter, together with six daggers. The others followed her example. Gobber held up his hook hand questioning, but Toraska just shook his head, then turned around and produced a short, high squeal. After a few seconds, he could see a Terrible Terror flying towards him.

"Tell the others, they can come back, no danger anymore."

The Terror nodded and flew back in the direction, he came from.

"Do you really believe, it understands you?" Stoik asked.

"No", Toraska replied, "I know, that he understands me."

He began to walk back towards the village. "If I was you, I would follow us with a bit space", he addressed the Vikings, "after the incident from before, Razor could be easily get the wrong ideas."

Razor growled confirmative and followed them. Within a short distance, the Vikings followed the pair and the dragon.

While they walked through the village, Astrid began to muse over some things, Toraska said earlier. He had no reason to lie to them, before they knew that their former master blacksmith was Hiccup, because he did not think, they would ever find out about it. That meant, Hiccup left four years ago and did not come back.

While she was musing, she saw a shadow moving to her right. In a small alley stood a man, completely in black, with a hood over his head... He was familiar, but before she could say anything, he just shook his head and gestured towards the Great Hall, like he wanted to say "We will see us there", then he vanished. Astrid blinked and then shrugged. If she wanted to know the answers, she had to follow Toraska to the Great hall.

"…and that is everything, we know so far" Asmenis ended his story and looked frowning in his mead cup.

"Well, at least we know the lad is alive and he found 'imself a mentor", Gobber said.

"Yeah, but it would have been better, if we found himself", Stoik muttered darkly. "You really have no idea, where he could be?" he asked Toraska, Asmenis and Lana.

"The only one who could know where he is, would be _him_, but I do not know, if he is here", Toraska replied.

Asmenis laughed shortly. "This is a special case my son, I would not be surprised, if he stood anywhere here, and listened to our talk from end till beginning."

"Who are you always referring to?" asked Fishlegs confused.

"Well not entirely, I just got the last third of it. The one who they are referring to, would be probably me", sounded an amused voice, directly behind Fishlegs, who yelped and nearly fell out of his chair. "I am sorry."

The Vikings from Berk all looked shocked at the figure, which just appeared in the middle of them, without anyone realizing him before. The three other ones around the table and the dragon were quiet amused.

"You!" Snotlout shouted. "You are the one, who helped that traitor to escape!"

"Yes, I did and what want you to do against it? I thought, I told you not to talk to me again, until you at least endured a tenth of the pain, Hiccup has", the man replied calmly.

With an enraged cry, Snotlout stormed towards the man. Astrid just shook her head. Snotlout was unarmed and the stranger had four swords with him, Snotlout would be dead within seconds. But the man just dodged Snotlout's punch and then lifted him up, one hand on his throat. He calmly made three steps and sat Snotlout down on his former place.

"Never charge an enemy, if you do not know anything about him", he lectured calmly.

"I could easily beat you, if I had my weapon" Snotlout managed to choke out.

"I have not used my own, so that argument is invalid. I also fought with more weaponry masters, than you will ever get to know people in your whole life, so allow me to doubt it", he stated.

Snotlout tried to reply something but Astrid punched him in the stomach and hissed: "He could have easily killed you, do you want, that he finishes it?"

"Thanks Astrid and now, back to your question. Yes, I know where Hiccup is."

Stoik tensed. "Will you tell us?" he asked.

"Yes, but under one circumstance", he said. "Only one of you will go and try to convince him, to come back."

"Alright, then we have to discuss, who will be it", Stoik said enthusiastically.

"Oh no", the stranger said, "You misunderstood me. It is already certain, who that person will be. Snotlout does not care about bringing Hiccup back, the twins are to easily distracted, Fishlegs is too easy afraid. No offense", he said towards the big Viking, who just nodded and smiled weakly. "The other obstacle throws you two out of the race, Stoik, Gobber. You are too used to fight against dragons, you could not trust them. But you would be to slow on a ship; you have to go by dragon, to find him. So that leaves only one candidate open" he turned towards Astrid, "you."

_Astrid's POV_

"Me?" I said, quite shocked.

"Wait, what do you mean, by dragon?" Stoik asked in the same moment.

"Hiccup changes the island; he is staying on, weekly. He searches randomly for islands, he can stay on, and you would be to slow, to follow him by boat. So the only possibility is, that you ride a dragon as well", the man explained calmly.

"You want us to trust these devils?" Snotlout shouted.

"It is her decision", he shrugged.

"I'll do it", I heard myself say. I did not know, why I said it, but I knew, that I could not live on with that guilt, panging against my heart. Hiccup befriended a dragon, the whole village befriended dragons, so maybe it would be not as bad, as it seemed to be.

"Alright, by chance, there is a dragon on this island, who wants to visit Hiccup as well. You two should try to throw your lot together."

"Hey, wait Astrid, you cannot trust these devils. It flies you a certain distance and then rips you apart and eats you as its lunch", Snotlout tried to argue.

"I made my decision", I said. The chief stepped next to me.

"Try to stay alive and try to find my son", he said quietly. I nodded.

"Well then, grab your things, you can bring your weapons as well and meet me at the edge of the forest in fifteen minutes", the man said and went through the big doors of the Great Hall.

The farewell seemed very surreal. Snotlout still tried to convince me, that this was insane, until I punched him in the stomach, the twins asked me, to produce some chaos for them, Fishlegs just smiled weakly at me, Stoic patted on the shoulder and Gobber said, I should bring his apprentice back, he missed his sarcastically jokes. If I was honest, I missed them as well.

When I arrived at the forest edge, the man stood there and seemed to talk to a Terrible Terror, who sat on his arm. The Terror flew away and he turned around to me.

"Do you have a name?" I asked him, just being curious.

"Nemhil", he answered.

I nodded and looked at the forest, where the Terror just vanished.

"Can you talk to them?" I asked.

"Yes and Lana, Toraska and Hiccup can as well. Maybe he'll teach you", Nemhil said. "Ah, there she is."

I inhaled sharply. The dragon, who now stepped out of the forest, was the Deadly Nadder, Nemhil freed the day, he escaped his death sentence.

"Now then, step forward and make you known to each other. But please without spikes and axe, alright?"

I dropped my axe and walked slowly towards the Nadder, who crooned alarmed. Out of instinct, I tried to calm it.

"Shhh, everything's good girl, I will not hurt you."

I remembered, how Toraska told us, how he bonded with Razor, so I looked away from the dragon and held my hand up, palm towards the dragon. I looked up, when something touched my palm and saw the dragon, pressing its snout into my hand. No, not its snout. Her snout.

"Very well, but you have to hurry. Hiccup is on an island northeast from here, on with a mountain, who looks like a tree, split in two by lightning", Nemhil said. "I do not know how long he will stay there, so get on your way."

I nodded, grabbed my axe and mounted my dragon. My dragon. That sounded good.

"But something else before that", he said and suddenly his voice sounded threatening. He pulled me a bit down to him, his other hand vanished under his hood and I could suddenly see his eyes. I did not notice which color they had; in fact, the only thing I noticed was the promise in them. I would not have been necessary, but he spoke it out loud. "If you hurt Hiccup again or fail to protect him from pain, because of your stupid pride or other selfish reasons, I will hunt you down and will show you the pain, Hiccup had to endure. So try to make things right, stand by his side like you should have ten years ago." I could just nod. His eyes had something hypnotic, but at the same time so threatening, that I could not speak. If I would not knew, that he gave me a chance, I would have curled myself to a small ball right now and cried my eyes out, so terrifying he would have been. Then three words began ringing in my head. _Ten years ago._ I remembered why he seemed familiar, not only from the killing ring. He protected Hiccup before, when we were nine years old, when I should have been the one protecting him. He still glared at me and I nodded a second time, but this time, I also gave a promise to myself. If I could not fulfill the promise I just gave, he would not have to hunt me down. I would wait for him, at the very place I failed. He sighed, let go of my arm and moved his other hand from the place under his hood. His eyes vanished again.

"Good. Oh and name her on the way, it will help you, to develop a deeper binding. Good-bye Astrid, we will see us again."

The dragon crooned and started, I clung on her horns, while she flapped her wings. We had the same aim and it would not escape us. He would not be able to.

_Three days later_

"Look Stormfly, there is the island", I shouted excited. Stormfly crooned happy and made a slight curve, to get on a better airstream towards the island.

During the last three days, our relationship deepened and I found her name after she flew in storm on the second day, to stubborn to wait, till the storm passed. Maybe this stubbornness would come in handy now.

"Alright, we need to search a clearing, where you can land", I said. Stormfly found one with ease and not lay that. While flying over the forest, I also catched a glimpse of a camp in smaller clearing, not so far away from our landing place. With Stormfly behind me, I crouched through the forest, until I reached the clearing. Yes it was definitely a camp and if I could see it right, there were scorch marks on the ground, probably from Toothless, when he lay down to sleep. I observed this pattern by Stormfly.

"Got cha, Hiccup", I mumbled, and then shrieked back, as an n arrow only flew centimeters from my face away into a tree.

"Really? It seems, I got you", I heard that nasal voice, I missed for so long.

_Nemhil's POV_

I sat in the dark, on a cliff above Hiccup's camp and waited for the show to begin. I knew, Astrid was nearly here and then it could be rather interesting to eavesdrop. Also, I had to make sure, that nothing would disturb these two, while they had their conversation. It could get pretty nasty, if they got disturbed now, it could even resolve in one or both teenagers death.

I let my thoughts wander and sighed. I could not stay to long, I heard from one of my Terror spies that Drago found a Skrill and I could absolutely not let him have it. It would resolve in a crisped Hiccup and a burned Toothless, with maybe some Astrid-ash flocks as spice. That were some moments, I really wished, Night or someone else from the group was here, to support me. I knew, they had their own problems to deal with and maybe even greater foes, then Hiccup had right now, but it would be nice, to know, that someone had his back, when something went wrong. Although this whole different dimension letting developed could be considered as 'letting something go wrong'. But sometimes, a bit backup from other humans, who knew this kind situation, would be very nice.

'One the other hand' he thought and chuckled quietly, when he heard the thunk of Hiccups arrow sinking in a tree, Astrid's yelp of surprise and Hiccup's snarky remark on sentence, Astrid said before to herself, 'is it pretty good, that Night does not know anything about this. She would probably beat the crap out of me, for ruining the moment, Astrid and Hiccup could have had and know even enjoying this variation and being curious how it develops.'

With this thoughts, he stood up and went in the forest, still deep in thoughts about why he did not stopped it, when he could and smiling sadly, when remembering the flight Hiccup and Astrid could have had. He would right it, eventually, when this would be over.


End file.
